Book 1: CyberPunk Londinium

The Plan

We arrived at our platform, and began our plan. I laid out the map on the floor, and gathered Sarah and Ron. "So, what's the plan?" asked Ron. "Ok, so, first we'll....I don't know.." I replied. I have been wanting this for so long, but I never actually got around to making a plan. "Well, we could always gather an army of civilians and rush in head first." suggested Sarah. "No, we would be too easily defeated." I replied. Ron wondered if there were any back doors in CyberCorps Tower, but I knew that there weren't any. We were out of ideas, until I remembered something. "Wait. When Karim revealed his true colours, I noticed that he was wearing a wrist gauntlet. This gauntlet had a screen on it that showed sets of data in a room. And this room was titled 'Server Room, Floor 26'. So if we could get into that room and disable the servers, we SHOULD be able to deactivate all electronics in the Tower." I told Ron & Sarah. "But Maverick, how would we get in?" they both said, almost at the exact same time. "Hmm...wait here." I replied.

Around one hour later, I returned to them. "Where did you go?" enquired Sarah, "and why were there sounds of a car crash and a CyberCorps siren?" I replied by placing a holographic map of CyberCorps Tower on top of our other map. "How did you get this?" Ron asked, "Only CyberCorps soldiers have these....ohhhh you stole it, didn't you?". I nodded, and proceeded to interact with the map as I informed Ron and Sarah of my new plan. "So first, we have to get ourselves some soldier uniforms. I noticed that the inspections for normal soldiers are quicker and less risky than those of the Superior Guards, so don't get a Superior Guard uniform. Next, after we have bypassed the main and only entrance, we will head towards the elevator. While we are on the way there, I will use the gauntlet on the uniform (which I will remotely connect my phone to) to disable the cameras, because that's all I'll be able to do while the servers are online which is why we need to disable them, and we can then take out the two soldiers that guard the elevator. Once in, we'll head up to floor 26, and walk across the long corridor until we reach a double door. Now remember, the door has a window next to it, and there is a vent on the other side. We'll decide who goes where when we're there if we need to. Once we are in the room, we each need to go to one of the three Core Servers, which each power a fraction of the building, and plant a miniscule EMP on each one. As soon as the timer reaches zero, the detonators in our gauntlets will be activated. This will allow us to activate the EMPs as soon as we see Karim in the same room as us. We hit the detonators, and when the lights go out, we grab Karim's gauntlet and get out of there ASAP, and (using the gauntlet) as we're leaving we'll press the one button that I KNOW is on that gauntlet, which is a 'Tower Destruction Button'. I know this because my mother used to be a soldier before she betrayed them to be with my father, and she worked with their old leader. Finally, we run out of the tower and watch it fall.". While I had been saying this, I had been zooming in and out on the holographic map, marking and pinpointing key locations. "Is there anything else we need to know?" asked Ron, "Because, if we mess this up, Karim will torture us until the day he dies." I told Ron that there was nothing I missed, and that we should all get a good night's sleep before we were to begin our plan the next day.

Around 1am, Ron walked over to me, as I was sitting against a wall without my prosthetics on, and asked if he could tell me something, with the promise that I wouldn't get visibly mad or upset. I nodded, and waited for his confession. He sat down next to me, and simply said "I wasn't going to fire". I turned my head towards him, wondering what he meant by this. But, instead of speaking up, I let him continue. "That night, when your father died. I wasn't going to save you. I was too scared. But then I remembered something. No matter how angry, or scared, or upset you get, you should always do what's right...even if it puts you at risk." he told me. I told him that I understood, and that I'm eternally grateful. He got up to go back under his shelter, but before he could walk away I fully turned to him and told him in a commanding voice "There is one thing that I didn't mention earlier. When I watch CyberCorps Tower fall...I'm killing Karim. Whether you like it or not, that's my end goal.". Ron simply nodded slowly, and went to bed.

A few minutes later, once he was asleep, I decided to confront Sarah. Not as an enemy, but as a companion. I shook her awake and silently ushered here to where I had previously spoken to Ron. "Sarah, I didn't want to speak to you about this, but I must get this weight off of my shoulders." I told her, "When I went out to get supplies by myself earlier in the week, I bumped into someone. And after getting rid of the soldiers who were abusing him, I told him that I recognized him, and when I asked him what his name was, he said that it was Den-" "Dentry Shuldrin..." she interrupted me. I asked her why she kept this a secret. and she told me that Karim had informed her of his choice to secretly cast Dentry out of Anonymity by sending him to an orphanage, and that this all happened when Dentry was only 3. I was appalled by this, and embraced Sarah, explaining that she could go and rest, which is what we both did.

In the night, I woke up and saw soldiers running near where we were all hiding, and even though I tried to hide, I couldn't help but follow them. Eventually, I caught up to them, but I then realised that I was dreaming again. This time, I aimed a gun down towards a man who was kneeling on the floor. I fired the gun unwillingly, and witnessed as 3 people escaped their bonds in front of me. This means that I was dreaming from KARIM'S point of view. And I realised this as my dream forced to aim at Ron. As I pulled the trigger (against my wishes) I snapped awake, and soon learnt that it was only 4am, so I went back to sleep to get as much rest as possible.

Later, around 7am-7:30am, we all woke up. "We all know what to do." I told Ron and Sarah, "So let's get to it!"